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THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


The Ally of the Screen 


The book and the photoplay are so closely allied 
and so attuned to each other now that what 
touches one is almost certain to touch the other. 
Both have the same missions to perform. Both 
are entertaining and both are instructive. Each 
opens a new land and new world for him who will 
stop to read and to look. Out of use of the two 
is imagination spurred and the world made to 
progress. 


It has long been known how motion pictures 
have spurred reading, and it is also true that read- 
ing encourages motion picture fans to see the 
picturized versions of their favorite stories. Li- 
brarians prepare, In many cases, to meet the de- 
mands for books weeks in advance of the coming 
of a picture. 


Lovers of good books are lovers of good pic- 
tures, and lovers of good pictures are lovers of 
good books. It behooves all those interested in 
pictures and in books, therefore, to work together 
that the best of each may always be in demand. 


Just as an indication of how close the relation- 
ship 1s between books and motion pictures, and 
as a compliment to the authors, book lovers, and 
particularly the librarians of this country who 
have helped the screen, this booklet is issued. 


Issued by 


Motion PicturE Propucers ANnp Distriputors oF AMERICA, INc. 
Will H. Hays, Pres. 469 Fifth Ave., New York City 


I 


The Novel on the Screen 


Some freshly returned trav- 
eler, still a thrill with the glories 
of the Louvre and the glamours 
of the Boulevards which George 
Moore so neatly painted in his 
“Confessions of a Young Man” 
and Carl Van Vechten so admir- 
ably imitated in his “Peter Whitf- 
fle,’ has spoken of Paris as the 


place to which “all good Amer- 


icans go when they die.” 


In the same manner of 
speaking and in the same 
mood may we not recall 
“Ben-Hur” and ‘“Romola” 
and the picturized versions 
of Sabatini’s effusions and 
say of the motion picture 
that it is the place to which 
“all good books go when 
they grow up’? 


MOVIES LEAN ON BOOKS 

Surely it is, that on the book 
—the novel and the short story 
—the motion picture must and 
does lean heaviest for its sup- 
port. Indeed, on these two vir- 
tually synonymous forms of ex- 
pression, and on the speaking 
stage, the motion picture, for 
the present at least, is more or 
less dependent. A few original 
stories are being written for the 
screen. (An attraction like 
“The Big Parade,” which is at 
this time drawing throngs, 
comes fresh from the pen of a 
writer like Laurence Stallings, 


for instance.) Still, on the whole 
and in the main, it is to the book 
and to the play, that the cinema 
at present looks for its chief raw 
product—the story. 


This condition persists in 
spite of the glaring fact 
that all the world is writing 
for the movies, lustily and 
inordinately, and is flooding 
the offices of the scenario 
editors of the producing 
companies at the rate of one 
hundred thousand manu- 
scripts a Oe at of these 
many that are submitted by 
untrained writers, a paltry 
three or four are being 
chosen for screen presenta- 
tion, while the other seven 
hundred or so come from 
books and plays or from the 
pens of distinguished liter- 
ary figures in or out of the 
industry who collaborate 
with the producers on pre- 
discussed themes or who 
have stories at once adapt- 
able to the screen. 


The time may come when the 
motion picture will be supplied 
with a sufficient number of 
worthwhile original manuscripts 
to be self-supporting, but for the 
present the book must play a 
major role in supplying the mo- 
tion picture industry with its 
plot material. 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


Il 


The Advantages of Publication 


The advantages of producing 
screen plays from books and 
plays of the stage are of course 
both numerous and important. 
First of all the publicity a book 
or a play gets and the backing 
it draws from those who read, 
are tremendously important to 


on the other hand, denotes 
a measure of careful prepa- 
ration which serves at once 
as an introduction and rec- 
ommendation to editors of 
scenario departments. 


PLAGIARISM 


motion pictures, in that they as- M{ Thirdly, there is the problem 


sure a certain financial success 
which an untried production 
might or might not attain. 
When the cost of picture making 
is considered and the amount of 
capital invested is computed, it 
is easily seen why this calcula- 
tion is of importance. 


WRITING FOR THE SCREEN 


Then, besides, the very 
hah rine of a book or play 
indicates that at least the 
germ of a thoughtful idea is 
contained therein, and that 
a trained mind has been in- 
volved somewhere or other. 
Too often are scripts dashed 
off for the screen by am- 
bitious but untalented writ- 
ers during lunch periods, 

and sent away to editors 
with only the inherent be- 
lief of every mortal that he 
can write for the movies to 
justify the investment in 
postage stamps which pay 
for its passage. Publication 


of plagiarism, always a danger- 
ous and delicate matter, which 
has to be considered by every 
producer. Unconsciously and 
with no thought of dishonesty 
perhaps, we often present half 
remembered impressions as new 
thoughts, forgetting where we 
first gained them. Practically 
every author is guilty of such 
derelictions at one time or an- 
other. In many instances, simple 
thoughtlessness rather than any 
desire to do an underhand trick 
impels the plagiarist. But 
whether a man means a thing or 
not there is often a legal objec- 
tion to it. Thus it is° when 
stories which are not copy- 
righted and which may closely 
resemble other stories already 
in process of preparation or 


which are being considered, are: 


submitted to producers and are 
declined, there sometimes goes 
up a cry of plagiarism, and the 
company is accused immediately 
of a distasteful offense. There 


y 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


- are so few basic plots in exist- 


ence that almost any two stories 


*may be pointed out as funda- 


mentally alike. And so the com- 
pany suffers the mortification of 


?a suit, perhaps—a suit involving 


? 


% 


a few thousand dollars for rights 
to a play in which millions have 
been invested — and the loss 
of a valuable friendship as well. 
All of which makes the publish- 
ing of books and stories first and 
the transference to the screen 
afterwards at least worthy of 
serious consideration. 
Many times, of course— 


and this will be increasingly 
true, or it should be in an 
age developing with the 
motion picture—there are 
originals with such fresh- 
ness of idea that direct 
adaptation to the screen is 
possible and advisable even 
though the author is not 
stylist enough for publica- 
tion. And it is to be hoped 
that the years will bring 
more and more such stories 
to take their place beside 
the stories that rest be- 
tween the covers of books. 


il 
The Book and the Play 


Ae the two forms of expres- 
sion, the play and the book, the 
motion picture resembles far 
more closely the book. A play 
has its meaning chiefly in words, 
and its action is confined to 
three or four scenes or divisible 
acts. Flashbacks are seldom 
possible—certainly not in well 
constructed plays—and flights 
of imagination must be toned 
down to meet the possibilities of 
stagecraft. True, hundreds of 
pictures have been made from 
plays among them “Peter Pan,” 


“A Kiss for Cinderella,” “Light- AT 


nin’” (this was later in novel 
form, too, I believe) all the other 
John Golden successes, “The 


or 


Merry Widow,” “Seven Keys to 
Baldpate” and many, many more 
that were excellently adapted, 
but on the whole the novel is 
more nearly kin or like the mo- 
tion picture than the play. | 

It follows necessarily, that 
some writings lend themselves 
more easily to the needs of the 
screen than do others, the mo- 
tion picture being objective in 
the sense that it belongs not to 
the consciousness or perceiving 
or thinking subject, but to what 
is presented to this subject. 
hat is, it is external and is not 
concerned with what goes on in- 
side the mind of the character 
portrayed. It has only actions to 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


vo on, whereas so much of our 
great writing is subjective, in- 
trospective—after the manner 
of Sherwood Anderson, James 
Branch Cabell, Theodore Dreiser, 
and the most of the moderns. 
The writings of Conrad should 
and have made good pictures. 
Conrad and the motion picture 
have exactly the same approach. 


He felt that the author must not 
know anything more about a 
character than the reader does, 
and that both must judge him 
from his acts alone. He con- 
tended, and throughout his writ- 
ings, clung to the theory, that no 
one should seek to know what 


goes on within the mind of a 
character. 


IV 
The Librarian’s Story 


In taking its meed of benefits 
from the novel and the play, the 
motion picture has not been self- 
ish altogether, but has repaid 
the novel in kind. Ask any li- 
brarian what the effect of mo- 
tion pictures is on reading and 
the librarian will tell you that 
the advent of a picture made 
from a book increases over- 
whelmingly the demand for that 
book. And not only the demand 
for that book but for all other 
books by the same author and 
for contemporary books which 
have a bearing on the subject. 
Alert librarians watch the an- 
nouncement of coming pictures 
and buy their books accordingly, 
and thus the book publisher is 
helped—if his special motion 
picture editions didn’t already 
prove it—and so on back to the 
author. 


BOOK-MARKS 
Lately there has developed a 
plan of issuing book-marks in 
Libraries coincident with the 


coming of a great picture so that 


readers may be properly guided 
in their quest for the right kind 
of books bearing on the subject. 

This plan was launched by 
Miss Marilla W. Freeman, of the 


Cleveland Public Library, who 
has been enthusiastic and help- 


ful in corelating the book and 
the screen for several years. 


This avid reading is not 
confined to the best sellers 
by any means but opens up 
new fields for readers and 
brings them into contact 
with tried and true volumes 
which ordinarily would be 
laid away for only the stu- 
dent to know. Here is a 
contribution of the motion 


¢ 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


picture not to be too lightly 

regarded. 

Unfortunately an unwarranted 
and entirely groundless stigma 
often attaches itself to those 


books to which the world had ap- | 


plied the title ‘classics,’ and 
that stigma is the stigma of 
dullness. For some reason, peo- 
ple are prone to look on a book 
which bears the name of a ven- 
erated author as dreary reading, 
as something that one is sup- 
posed to wade through because 
one simply must and not because 
there may be some real, secret 
reason to explain why the book 
has survived while a thousand 
of its contemporaries have been 
consigned to the limbo of for- 
gotten things. 


HOW PICTURES HELP 


This aversion emanates from 
our schools largely, where the so- 
called classics are retained as a 
part of the reading courses. As 
children we begin to look on 
Dickens and George Eliot and 
Jane Austen and Scott, as tire- 
some, dreary old writers of text 
books, and we read them under 
duress, as it were, retaining, un- 
consciously, the impression that 
these great men and women 
were writers of books to harass 
the young. Many of us never 
get over this feeling, and we go 
through life missing some of the 
greatest joy and happiness that 


and happiness that lie in good 
books. 


It is in the scattering of 
this false belief and in the 
awakening of the conscious- 
ness of men to the fact that 
because a book is a classic 
it is not necessarily a tire- 
some book, but on the other 
hand is a classic because it 
is a very interesting and di- 
verting book, that the mo- 
tion picture has played so 
great and so prominent a 
part for good. 


THE CLASSICS 

The motion picture, in turning 
often to the classics for its ma- 
terial, has told so entertainingly 
the stories involved that hun- 
dreds and thousands have been 
sent to the classics to find out if 
such a story is the story told 
there. To the surprise and as- 
suredly to the joy of these 
aroused minds, the classics are 
revealed in entirely new lights. 
For the first time people have 
begun to look on them as real 
books and to realize that just be- 
cause the dust of a few centuries 
has gathered on the covers there 
is no reason why the contents 
shouldn’t be fresh and palatable. 
Once convinced that the title 
“classic” is a compliment and 
not a subtle thrust, the reader 
is admitted to a new realm of 
reading through which he may 
browse with infinite relish for 


is allotted to humanity—the joy | the rest of his time. 


4 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


Already many of the so-called 
classics have reached the screen, 
though the surface has not been 
scratched. Remember the mo- 
tion picture is young yet, and 
there is time ahead for the film- 
ing of many of the great books 
which have come to us as price- 
less heritages from the masters 
of song and story. 


AN ELIOT BOOK 


Not long ago ‘“Romola’’ was 
converted to the pictures. Lillian 
Gish and her sister Dorothy 
went to Italy to make the scenes 
on the identical spots in which 
George Eliot laid her great 
story. The picture, regarded by 
many critics as a masterpiece, 
followed as faithfully as was 
possible the text of the novel 
and librarians in many cities 
have remarked how tremendous- 
ly more popular have been the 
works of Eliot during and since 
the showing of the picture. 

It is true, we are informed 
by librarians, that pictures 
like this spur reading not 
only of the book produced 
into a picture, but of all 
other books of the author. 


and moreover of contempo- 
rary literature. 


A HUMOROUS SIDE 

Sometimes the adaptation of 
pictures from famous novels has 
its humorous sides. For in- 
instance, not long ago in one of 
the larger cities, two women, 
friends and neighbors of long 
standing, met in the circulation 
department of a Carnegie L1- 
brary. One had a book under 
her arm and she was about to 
depart with it when her friend 
approached her and, as we ail 
do in libraries, peered at the 
selected volume. 

“What are you reading?” she 
asked. 

“Why, I thought I’d read Dr. 
Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,” replied her 
friend, “it ought to be splendid.” 

The other woman nodded 
agreement. 

“Ves, I saw the picture, too,” 
she declared, “but I declare I 
didn’t know it had been made 
into a book.” 

While this may be a doubtful 
compliment for Mr. Robert Louis 
Stevenson, it is certainly a sly 
one for Mr. John Barrymore. 


V 


The Prevalent Book 


There are in existence today, 
and the pile is being added to 
constantly, certain books and 
plays which the world dismisses 
eventually as pornographic writ- 
ings. 


That is, there are books. 


and plays which make their play 
for fame in terms of obscenity 
and lewdness, and which boldly 
flaunt their wares under the 
sacred name of realistic litera- 
ture. 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


Whether a great many of 
these books and plays are 
literature or not, the motion 
picture industry has no 
right to say and certainly 
cannot be expected to judge 
of them. Time alone will 
tell, and time is a harsh 
critic. Very little gets by 
time in the long run, and 
pornographic writing, unless 
it is literature, seldom sur- 
vives the age in which it is 
inscribed. However that 
may be, the motion picture 
industry has a definite in- 
terest involved in such pro- 
ductions and a definite duty 
to the patrons as well. 


THE OBSCENE 


The matter of obscenity is, 
first of all, we must remember, 
subjective. It is something 
within the mind of man, and is 
not to be defined in words. There 
are passages in the Bible, which 
read on their own account, can- 
not fail to convey the same 
meaning that much of the por- 


nographic literature conveys. 
Shakespeare certainly used 
words and_ situations which 


could hardly be glossed over, 
while Boccaccio and many other 
of the great writers whose 
works have refused to die, have 
employed themes which might 
easily be confused with some of 
our better known _ parlor-bed- 
room and bath episodes of the 
year nineteen hundred and 
twenty-six. To one generation 
a thing may be obscene and to 
another ludicrous, and to a third 


commonplace. Words familiarly 
spoken in Shakespeare’s day 
might easily bring the blush to 
our cheeks today, while to the 
generations to come they may 
be ordinary vehicles of expres- 
sion. 


THE PICTURES’ PART 


It is impossible, therefore, to 
determine just what is real and 
what is not, and it is not the 
motion picture’s duty to try even 
to do this. Its concern is in an- 
other direction. 


We will all agree that a book 
that you and I, as adults, may 
well read and enjoy—a book 
that has dubious situations and 
words, perhaps, but which will 
not affect us in any wrongful 
fashion—may be _ altogether 
wrong for someone else with a 
different background and a dif- 
ferent understanding. We may 
view the form of a nude figure 
— you and I— and be uplifted 
by it, inspired and made better 
men and women, while to the 
man with whom we are rubbing 
elbows, it may convey another 
and altogether distorted mean- 
ing. Especially is this true of 
the young; and here is the mo- 
tion picture’s concern with such 
books and plays. 


There are, roughly speak- 
ing, twenty million people 
going to the motion picture 
theatres in this country 
every day of the year. 
More than three-fourths of 
these are adults, for whom 
pictures are primarily pro- 
duced. Every class, every 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


degree of intelligence is in- 

volved in that host. And to 

these the motion picture in- 
dustry is beholden and re- 
sponsible. 

Therefore books and _ plays, 
which in themselves may not be 
harmful to me or to you, some- 
times must be kept from the 
screen to protect these other 
millions. The producers know 
this and they are willing and 
anxious to meet the situation. 
And they have, in a very satis- 
factory, commonsense, and log- 
ical manner. 


THE FORMULA 


Something more than a year 
ago the members of the Motion 
Picture Producers and Distrib- 
utors of America, Inc., of which 
Will H. Hays is_ president, 
met and discussed the matter 
and out of their conferences de- 
veloped a formula which has 
worked magically in bringing 
about the results desired. 


These producers volun- 
tarily agreed that they 
would do all within their 
power to prevent the preva- 
lent type of book and play— 
that is, the salacious, or the 
licentious —from reaching 
the screen. To do this they 
agreed that whenever a 
book or play was offered for 
the screen, which, in the 
opinion of the producer was 
not the type suited to the 
best interests of the twenty 
millions who daily patronize 
the theatres, that book or 
play should be sent to Mr. 
Hays’ office for a reading. 
If the same opinion should 
prevail there, then all the 


10 


companies belonging to the 
association—and these rep- 
resent 85 per cent of all the 
pictures produced — should 
have the privilege of refus- 
ing the rights to the prof- 
fered story. 

Last year 166 books and plays 
fell into this class and conse- 
quently were not filmed. No re- 
flections were cast on the books 
or plays, as books and plays, by 
these actions, but their use as 
motion pictures was alone in- 
volved. 


CRITICISM 

There has been criticism of 
this procedure by those sciolists 
who cling tenaciously to the old 
ery of “art for vart’s ssakew 
These are they who would 
have all pictures cast in the 
mould of the _ so-called mod- 
ern school of literary thought. 
But the millions of clean living, 
wholesome men and women who 
make up the backbone of this 
nation as they always have and 
always will, are not however, of 
the same mind. They feel, and 
rightly, that there are certain 
problems which are true, of 
course, and a part of life, but 
which can just as well be over- 
looked and forgotten in public 
discussion, and so long as this 
opinion prevails, as it will always 
prevail, the motion picture pro- 
ducers are going to cling to their 
formula and see to it that the 
prevalent type of book and play 
—not the real, nor the most ex- 
tensive product perhaps, but the 
frothy kind that flares up and 
dies — does not become the 
prevalent type of motion pic- 
ture. Tea in the parlor is just 
as realistic as pot-liquor in the 
kitchen—in our view. 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


VI 


Writing the Scenario 


In bringing a book to the 
screen, especially under the in- 
eluctable clauses of the formula 
which now governs the indus- 
try’s attitude toward adaptable 
material, the producer is com- 
pelled to build for himself a 
solid and substantial machine 
through which to sift the chaff 
and retain the flour of plots. He 
must, first of all, have trained 
readers in whom he has perfect 
confidence and on whom he may 
rely for sound literary judg- 
ments. These men and women, 
by very nature of their employ- 
ment, must necessarily be cul- 
tured, educated and of schol- 
astic attainments, and, as would 
be suspected, they represent, in 
most cases, graduates of our 
universities and of our colleges. 
They hold the same _ position, 
relatively speaking, that readers 
in publishing houses hold and 
the same responsibilities for dis- 
crimination rests upon them. 


MOVIE RIGHTS 


So desirous are publishers of 
disposing of the motion picture 
rights to their forthcoming 
books and plays that they often 
submit copies of their product 
in proof-form, and many times 
the authors themselves’ send 
their manuscripts to the pro- 
ducers of pictures before the 
typewritten sheets have been 
put into printers’ hands and 
molded to page form. 


If the involved book is 
read and is approved and if 


it is one of those books to 
which objections could not 
justly be raised, the reader 
submits his recommenda- 
tions accordingly, after 
which other readers express 
their views and give voice 
to their judgments before 
the final decision is reached 
by the producer and his 
board. If, on the other hand, 
objectonable features are 
contained, then the book is 
sent to the Hays’ office, as 
has been suggested, and 
there placed in the hands of 
more trained readers who 
go over it with an eye made 
more critical by the very 
fact that it has been sub- 
mitted to the association for 
a reading. 


Once a book or play has been 
accepted and has been discussed 
in its relation to motion picture 
possibilities—it must be remem- 
bered always that the two 
forms, the book and the picture, 
are distinct and separate—it is 
placed in the hands of the sce- 
narlo writer and translated into 
motion picture language. That 
is, it is turned into a scenario. 


DETAILS NEEDED 

Each scene must be worked 
out in minute detail, directions 
given, and titles written. A 
good scenario writer goes over 
the book until the book is known 
to him in every detail. The 
scenario writer begins to think 
and to live in the spirit of the 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


thing, and out of this gradually 
evolves the script which goes to 
the director for use on location 
and in the studio. 


Continuity writing is highly 
technical and calls for practical 
knowledge of motion picture 
conditions, possibilities, and me- 
chanics, as well as for dramatic 
and literary ability. Each scene 
must be written and numbered. 
Every detail of the scene must 
be planned. All titles and sub- 
titles must be arranged for so 
that at the conclusion the book 
is changed into a series of epi- 
sodes which interpret the book 
in terms of dramatic art. With 
these the director must be fa- 
miliar. The actors must study 
and train themselves for the cor- 
rect interpretation of their 
parts. 


THE TAKING OF SCENES 

It must be remembered that, 
in the studio, scene nineteen 
may be taken and followed im- 
mediately by scene two hundred 
and nineteen or some other such 
number. An expensive set is 
constructed in which scenes in 
the first of the play and in the 
last occur. Naturally it would 
be wasteful and idiotic to take 
the first scene, tear down the 
set, take another, build the same 


set again and so continue the 
story. Instead the _ director 
must make his scenes in the 
order which best suits his sets, 
and for this reason, if for no 
other, the scenario writer’s con- 
tinuity work must be perfect. 


RESEARCH WORK 


After the scenario has 
been written and plans have 
developed for the produc- 
tion, often it is necessary, 
especially in the production 
of plays from the older 
books, to do a great deal of 
research work in order that 
the settings and costumes 
and backgrounds may be 
accurately brought to the 
screen. Book readers are 
harsh critics. The smallest 
details do not escape atten- 
tion, and the = slightest 
screen error becomes mag- 
nified in the eyes of one who 
has read and loved a de- 
scription in some book. For 
that reason each studio 
must have its staff of re- 
searchers who delve into 
periods and extract such 
intimate details as the 
length of some Louis’ wine 
glasses or the shape of 
some Marie Antoinette’s 
fan or the girth of some 
Henry’s waist. 


Vil 


Research Work and Libraries 


Formerly, before the motion 
picture industry really became 
a settled business, there arose 
frequent confusions in matters 


of such a nature. The public 
libraries were being scoured by 
everybody from the director to 
the twenty-ninth trainbearer to 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


some obscure monarch, with the 
inevitable result that librarians 
were turning gray at forty and 
sent home at night too nerve- 
wracked and wearied for sleep. 


This is now changed, 
however, and system has 
succeeded the chaotic con- 
ditions of a few years ago. 
In the Los Angeles Public 
Library, for example, which 
is used extensively by the 
studios of the Pacific Coast, 
research work is made most 
productive of results. Sev- 
eral years ago a course of 
twelve lectures covering the 
reference material was in- 
augurated by the library 
school and the principal of 
the art department, Miss 
Gladys Caldwell. Since then 
a picture collection has been 
added and is growing so 
rapidly that it is about to 
become the tail that wags 


the dog, to quote Miss Cald- 
well herself. 


While the libraries are thus 
marshalling their forces to aid 
in the proper translation of the 
book to the screen, the produc- 
ers have added their own re- 
search departments. One studio 
now has 3,000 books and bound 
magazines, Miss Caldwell re- 
ported not long ago, and in ad- 
dition possesses thousands of 
clippings, photographs and pam- 
phlets. 

These studio reference rooms 
and these libraries are feeding 
grounds for fact-hungry  sce- 
nario writers and directors, and 
in them may be found the 
Francis Marions, the Jeanie Mc- 
Phersons, the Charles Kenyons 
and the others, whose adapta- 
tions are known the world over, 
seeking just the right fact for 
the right place in the right 
scene. 


Vill 


The Scenario Writers 


These scenario writers, whose 
names we see for fleeting sec- 
onds on the screen, must go 
‘through rigid training in pro- 
ducing their screen stories. Mo- 
tion pictures provide a new form 
of expression far removed from 
that of the stage and those who 
write for it are pioneers with 
no Euripides, no Shakespeares, 
no Marlowes, no strolling players, 
no Ibsens, and no Shaws behind 
them, along whose broad paths 
of thought and experience they 
may march. They must go 


13 


alone as it were, and the suc- 
cess which comes is the success 
of the Columbuses, the Pizarros, 
and the Daniel Boones of the 
world who blaze their own trails 
and draw their own maps. 
Among those men and women 
whose names are linked irrevoc- 
ably with the progress of pic- 
tures are June Mathis who 
has among her successful adap- 
tations “The Four Horsemen 
of the Apocalypse,” the play 
which introduced Rudolph 
Valentino to fame; Jeanie 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


McPherson who, aside from her 
“Ten Commandments,” has 
many successful adaptations to 
her credit; Frances Marion, one 
of the best known of them all, 
whose translation of Fannie 
Hurst’s Humoresque and whose 
“Abraham Lincoln” and “Potash 
and Perlmutter” augur well for 
the success of her “The Scarlet 
Letter,’ which is to be brought 
to the screen soon with Lillian 
Gish as the wearer of Hester 
Prynne’s mark of shame. 


GREAT PICTURES 

Jack Cunningham did “The 
Covered Wagon” from Emerson 
Hough’s novel, while Edmund 
Goulding achieved remarkable 
success with Joseph MHerges- 
heimer’s “The Bright Shawl,” 
and won the Photoplay Maga- 
zine gold medal for that year 
with the same author’s ‘“Tol’- 
able David.” Jean Hovez gave 
us “Grandma’s Boy” and “Dr. 
Jack”; Agnes Johnson adapted 
Mary Roberts  Reinhart’s 
“Twenty Three and a Half 
Hours Leave” and “Daddy Long 
Legs,” and the list is not begun. 


ONE REPORT 


Recent reports from the 
New Jersey Public Library 
Commission definitely gives 
credit for the tremendous 


increase in reading in that 
state to the motion picture 
and the radio. “It is ex- 
plained,” the report reads, 
“that the productions of 
the screen suggest new lines 
of thought, stimulate inter- 
ests in new nations, and 
bring into prominence and 
favor many of the classics, 
hence a desire for reading 
is thereby increased.” 


“In 1924,” the report con- 
tinues, “there was a steady 
gain over the preceding 
year in calls for library 
books in New Jersey. More 
books were borrowed for 
study than ever before, the 
number so loaned showing 
an increase of 34,000 over 
that of the previous year. 
There was a demand for 
books of higher standard 
than formerly. Their great- 
est demand was for histor- 
ical novels.” 


This is but an additional proof 
of the value of the screen in ad- 
vancing the thought of the coun- 
try, and only goes to show how 
the motion picture is doing its 
work not only as an educator in 
itself, but as a stimulus to edu- 
cation and thought on a higher 
plane. 


Here are a few pictures which 
have been made from books! 
“The Man Without a Country,” 
by Edward Everett Hale; 
“Madame Sans-Gene,” by Vic- 


IX 
4yvA Few Books in the Movies 


14 


torian Sardou; ‘Pere Goriot,” 
by Honore Balzac; ‘Don Juan,” 
based on Lord Byron’s poem of 
the Spanish literary figure; 
“Quo Vadis,” by Henry Sienkie- 


THE NOVEL AND THE SCREEN 


wicz: Du Mauriers ‘Trilby”, 
Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Let- 
ter,’ which is Lillian Gish’s 
forthcoming production; “The 
Hunchback of Notre Dame” and 
“Les Miserables,” by Victor 
Hugo; Selma Lagerlof’s “The 
Emperor of Portugalia,” known 
on the screen as ‘“‘The Tower of 


Presse. Gonrad se slords Jlmae 
Scott’s “Ivanhoe”; Kipling’s 
“UsGneah eherel Se AMaver MD Fedany ANaehe 


Failed’”—‘‘Kim” is now being 
made—Dicken’s “‘A Tale of Two 
Cities,” “Oliver Twist,” “David 
Copperfield,” “The Old Curiosity 
Shop”; and Ibanez, “The Four 
Horsemen of the Apocalypse” ; 
and Sabatini’s “Scaramouche.” 

Among other books on the 
screen now are “Tol’able David”’ 
and “The Bright Shawl,” by 
Joseph Hergesheimer; ‘The 
Spoilers,” “The Ne’er-do-well,” 
and “The Auction Block,” by Rex 
Beach; ‘“‘Clarence,” “‘Seventeen,”’ 
“Alice Adams,” “Penrod,” “The 
Fighting Coward,” by Booth Tar- 
kington—the last named was 
Magnolia on the stage—‘‘Main 
Street” and “Babbitt” have been 


made from Sinclair Lewis’ no- 
table works; Edna Ferber’s ‘So 


Big’; Owen Johnson’s ‘Blue 
Blood’; Laurence Stallings’ 
“Plumes”; Coningsby Dawson 


“The Coast of Folly’; Peter B. 
Kyne’s “Never the Twain Shall 
Meet”; Emerson Hough’s “The 
Covered Wagon”; Lew Wallace’s 
“Ben-Hur”; Zane Grey’s “The 
Vanishing American’; Harold 
Bell Wright’s “A Son of His 
Father’; George Barr Mc- 
Cutcheon’s ‘“Graustark”; Bar- 
rie’s “Sentimental Tommy”; 
Anthony Hope’s “Prisoner of 
Zenda,” and countless more. 

From all of this we may 
gather that the book owes a 
debt of gratitude to the motion 
picture just as the motion pic- 
ture does to the book and that 
the two together are so closely 
linked and so closely allied that 
what affects one is bound to af- 
fect the other. Lovers of books 
must through necessity be lov- 
ers of pictures and lovers of pic- 
tures must through necessity be 
lovers of books. 


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